Flatline wrote on Jul 5, 2012, 16:33:Actually the small publishers are already there charging 5-10 bucks for apps when it comes to digitized board games.

Summoner Wars (sort of) launched yesterday and to unlock all the factions it's 8 bucks. Haggis, another extremely popular board game, costs 5. Carcassone costs like 12 and while they aren't top 25/angry birds levels of insane sales, they sell steadily, for long periods of time.

Quit bothering them with pesky things like facts and logic. They don't like it.

That being said, it's becoming clearly evident that no dominant pricing strategy exists for video games, although a newly-discovered successful one will attract a lot of attention from the big money players out there. As a result, for smaller studios the smart play will likely always be in cutting against the grain. If the big guns focus their resources on big-budget AAA titles priced at the current retail norms, then the indies will go downstream to mid-tier and lower price points. If the big guys go subscription-based, then the indies have a play with episodic gaming. If the incumbent publishers move into free-to-play, then developers of niche titles might, oddly enough, have an angle at pushing all-encompassing titles at higher price points to better cater to the demands of their customers, who want it all and are willing to pay for it all.

What I'm getting at is there's no single pricing model that fits all needs, and that, contrary to Parallax Abstraction's fears, no matter where the big money goes there's likely no way for them to squeeze out other players.